Tag Archives: white socks

This is my last twitter summary of the Chess World Championship 2016. I compiled no less than 22 (!) Twitter reports. Enough is enough!

Let’s start with two tweets by former world champion Vishy Anand.

@vishy64theking: “Congrats to Magnus Carlsen . Sometimes hanging in long enough is more important than playing best moves.”

But Vishy did not forget the challenger: “Sergey Karyakin played a great match. Was extremely close & nearly there. Congrats on a great fight”.

Vishy knows what he is talking about . Personally, this match in New York reminded me of Vishy’s match against Boris Gelfand in 2012, because there are some striking similarities: the draws, the boring games, the angry reactions from the chessworld and the exciting tiebreak. An out-of-form champion had to fight until the very end against a well prepared and motivated challenger in a tiebreaker to keep his title. In the end pure class prevailed. Just like in 2016.

Gelfand and Anand in Moscow 2012. Picture taken from my blog Mate in Moscow.

Another similarity: @olimpiuurcan:” It’s easy to forget that Carlsen was down in this match and written off by some. In many ways, it is a pretty remarkable comeback story.”

We saw the same scheme in 2012, when Vishy lost game 7, but he was able to hit back immediately in game 8. And who does remember the 22 moves in game 12, when Anand played white? Just saying.

@ddtru:“Karjakin is like Bronstein, Gelfand or Leko. They didn’t win, but they proved it was possible to fight the World Champion”

Another former world champion has something to say as well: @Kasparov63:“Congratulations to Magnus! His lack of preparation angered the goddess Caissa, but not enough to drive her into the drab Karjakin’s arms.”

I guess, Kasparov had his 2000 match against Kramnik in mind, in which he was completely outprepared and did not win a single game. I do not understand this tweet, and I am not alone:

@glarange72: “Only the great GK could manage such a backhanded compliment… “

@isavulpes: “No idea where Garry is coming from with that statement, Magnus won the opening battle in almost every game”.

I think @nicholasiking has a spot-on response: “Didn’t Carlsen consistently get an advantage out of the opening? Seemed like technique failed him more than preparation”.

And I repeat this tweet by @Eljanov: “Sergey is fighting like a lion-huge respect towards him. But the question is still open: for what they spent one million for preparation?”

More tweets after the match: @chessninja: “Russia Today reporting that Sergey Karjakin has finished second in a major international chess event.” @ddtru: “There is another version of this joke: “Carlsen only finished next to last place, while Karjakin got silver”.

A bit harsh, but still funny. Others are happy that the match is over: @srikanth_govind: “Relieved……that the match is over!! The likes of Alekhine, Tal, Fischer will squirm in their coffin!”

Did you find the match exciting, Hikaru Nakamura? @gmhikaru:“First WCH since I became a serious player in which I literally did not follow a game live for more than 5 minutes at any given time.”

@swedishjun knows why: “Normal reaction from a guy who has been humiliated in blitz a month ago by Magnus”.

We should not forget one important match detail: @GMAlexColovic: “Moral of Carlsen-Karjakin. Always wear white NBA socks for the tie-breaks!” @haraldbb:“White socks with dark suit. Very Letterman. When in Manhattan, do the Broadway”.

@nbaontnt: “When you’re the World Chess Champion, but ball is life..”

@mashamener: “World champion in white socks: The Magnus “.

@vanadis_u9: “Mr Sergey Karyakin had the best preparations for the worldchess 2016 bringing enough socks to last until day 13.”

Many Norwegians are just happy that they get some sleep again: @TarjeiJS:”One fifth of Norway’s population (764.000) followed every single minute of the Carlsen-Karjakin tiebreaks, NRK reports. Wow!”

Another wow goes out to the brilliant Peter Heine Nielsen: @itherocky: “@PHChess has been the Part of the World Champion’s Team for the Last 10 years! With @vishy64theking and @MagnusCarlsen” . PH tweeted: @phchess: !“Thanks a lot! Mexico City 2007, Bonn 2008,Sofia 2010,Moscow 2012,Sochi 2014 and now New York 2016 ? Great memories indeed!”

One last tweet to end the coverage of the match: @JimCorrigan: “Inspired by #CarlsenKarjakin, I am going to keep playing chess against random bozos on the Internet. And probably losing.”

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